14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Phone, the latest mobile operating system flavor that Microsoft brought to the market, is expected to become more appealing before the end of the ongoing year through the addition of new features into the mix.
Microsoft already confirmed some of them, such as multi-tasking, IE9, Twitter integration in Peoples Hub and the like, but it seems that there still are a wide range of enhancements that the OS would receive and which were not unveiled for the time being.
As most of you should already know by now, all of these improvements are expected to make it in Windows Phone as soon as the next OS release is here, codenamed Mango.
“While there are a wide range of new features in Mango that you’ll hear more about in the coming weeks and months, at TechEd we’re highlighting a number of new capabilities designed to help you stay productive on the go,” Paul Bryan, Senior Director of Business Experience for the Windows Phone team at Microsoft, notes in a recent blog post.
One of the main enhancements that Mango would arrive on shelves with would be enhanced productivity right out of the box. Getting in touch with people that are important to a user should be easier than before as well.
For example, Mango would also include the ability to save and share Office documents through Office 365 and Windows Live SkyDrive, so that users could access them at all times, anywhere they are.
Some of the enhancements that Windows Phone would receive in Mango would be:
- Pinnable email folders: Pin a folder to the start screen for quick access. This could be an email folder for a specific project, from a specific group or person (like your boss), or an RSS feed you’ve set up in Outlook.
- Conversation view in email: Emails in your inbox are organized by conversation, bringing replies to a thread into a consolidated view so it’s faster and easier to stay on top of the conversation.
- Server search: Search your email server (e.g. Exchange Server) for older emails no longer stored on your phone, giving you ready access to all of your mail.
- Lync: Lync Mobile brings the Lync experience to Windows Phone customers by delivering Unified Communications capabilities, including instant messaging and the ability to see the presence of your co-workers. The Lync app will be a free download from Windows Phone Marketplace and will be enabled with support from your business organization.
But there's even more to it. Apparently, Microsoft also comes with a series of new features aimed specifically at IT pros, including complex (alpha-numeric) password support, or Information Rights Management support for protecting e-mails and Office documents.
Also in Mango, Microsoft plans on introducing support for access to hidden corporate Wi-Fi networks, so that Windows Phones could easily prove great devices for IT organizations.
With over 16,000 apps available in the Windows Phone Marketplace, the mobile platform also shows that the developer support is on the rise.
“With new capabilities for developers in Mango (e.g., HTML5 support, Targeted Distribution of apps) we expect an even larger number and wider range of apps for Windows Phone in the future,” Paul Bryan continues.
Some more features are expected to make it in Mango (some of them were already unveiled in unofficial manners), and Microsoft should go official with more of them in the not too far future.
